Think of balance as a verb

6-channel sound, tactile transducers on 3 balance boards, 3 open speakers, 2 servo motors, owl drawing, 2018

Duration: 4+4 minutes, performed in sessions for groups of 3 people

This project is a part of the series 'Non-vertical listening' that offers participants tools and techniques to alter the verticality of their sensory perception. It is a performance for listeners who are directed into a physical exercise. 

The introduction to the exercise is recorded and played back in the style that is inspired by self-healing tutorials. It talks about balance as a verb or balance as a noun, keeping balance in life, balance on the bank account, balance as an interaction with a human or a being.

It is followed by artist's call for volunteers who are hand-guided to take positions on top of each of the three balance boards.

The automated maquette of a barn owl sets the examples for balance exercise. Barn owl ears, unlike human ears, don't age. So doesn't age their sense of balance.

The participants repeat movements after the owl.

Photography: Miyuki Inoue, 'About 761 miles per hour' sound and performance event, Amsterdam.

'Entrepreneurs are the absolute worst when it comes to having balance in their lives. I know because I am one. But really all of us, even those who don't work much, need to recognize and remember the importance of having balance.

In this exercise we are going to talk about balance as it relates to our lives and physique.

The balance definition is – something that remains or is left over.

The state of balance is a stillness that manifests throughout the system. A state of balance is a particular kind of stillness in which all the forces acting come to rest. Try to deposit this last thought in the back of your head. And roll it lightly first to the left, than to the right, then to the left again and now, come back to stillness.'